ATTENTION: THOSE WHO DESPAIR OF CHANGE

BE REALISTIC, DO NOT DESPAIR...

Many have been asking me of late why it is that despite many religious leaders and Christian godmen having been thoroughly and utterly exposed for their corruption, deception, degradation, and depravity, people -the so-called believers- continue to flock to them.

This, according to them, defies common sense. Their argument is as follows-

Religion is a domain of the godly. Truth is the essence of the divine. So, when people realize that these the persons they had taken for 'men of God' are religious frauds, their followers and cash cows, should feel offended. Consequently, they should flee from them at once.

Nothing is farther from the truth. And it shows a poor understanding of the psychology of religious desperation.

Why do people flock to these religious frauds? They do so, because they suffer from a terrible lack. They suffer intensely and they are at their wit's end.

In their utter helplessness, they need help. The only help they have found is this god-man, or that god-woman.

They have a desperate psychological need -this is mistaken as something spiritual- to depend ABJECTLY and desperately on the so-called 'servants of God' they have chosen fervently. It is very much like a drowning man clutching a piece of straw.

In such a state, you give a discourse of the brittleness and inadequacy of the straw. You talk eloquently about the foolishness of what the person is doing. After all, isn't it evident that no straw can help the person concerned?

Try as hard as you might, speak with all the passion you can galvanize, beat your breast, and tear your hair in a desperate bid to convince the drowning person of the foolishness of what he is doing. The outcome will be wholly predictable. He or she will not let go of the straw.

The same applies to the desperation with which Christians in bewilderment hold on to certain individuals who know the art of projecting themselves as servants of God. Mount evidence on evidence that they are crooks, cheats, and callous hypocrites. Nothing that you do or say will work with most people.

The more damaging evidence you pile up against these religious frauds, the more desperately their victims will hold on to them. They will experience a powerful need to DISBELIEVE the evidence. They would want to believe that perhaps there is an outside chance that the faith healer of their choice, though a fraud now, could turn out, somehow, sometime, to be a source of help. This is a classic case of 'hoping against hope'. It is also 'hoping against overwhelming evidence'. This is the sort of psychology that gets people addicted to gambling. People in desperation are apt to GAMBLE on godmen.

So, don't expect a sea -change at once. It is going to take a while for the truth to sink into the rank and file of helpless Christians to recognize and accept the reality.

It is not that change is unlikely or impossible. Actually, I am surprised -very pleasantly,- at the extent of change that has happened in the last two years.

This far exceeds my most optimistic expectation.

So, there is good ground to expect that the people can be rescued from the hands of these wolves in sheep's clothing.

We need to persevere in faith and hope with the truth.

And believe firmly that truth will prevail in the end.

Satyameva jayate nanartam!

Valson